Electronic music + Album reviews | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/electronicmusic+tone/albumreview
model.DotcomContentType$TagIndex$@3190d31aen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018Mon, 19 Mar 2018 15:31:01 GMT2018-03-19T15:31:01Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Creep Show: Mr Dynamite review – ominous, inventive and funnyhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/18/creep-show-mr-dynamite-album-review-phil-mongredien
<p>(Bella Union)</p><p>Electronica has played an increasingly prominent role in <a href="http://johngrantmusic.com/">John Grant</a>’s ever-evolving solo career, the Midlake-assisted balladry of 2010’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/22/john-grant-midlake-queen-denmark-review"><em>Queen of Denmark</em></a> largely being usurped by synths by the time of 2015’s absorbing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/01/john-grant-grey-tickles-black-pressure-review"><em>Grey Tickles, Black Pressure</em></a>. His 2016 performance with British analogue electro trio Wrangler (comprising Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder, Tunng’s Phil Winter and sometime John Foxx foil Benge) at the Barbican, London, felt like a natural next step. Two years on, that project has a name, and a debut album that is by turns ominous-sounding, inventive and, on K Mart Johnny – a Blue Jam-like evocation of plastic-dinosaur-based children revenge – surprisingly funny. For the most part, the voices of Grant and Mallinder have been heavily treated, pitched up or down, rendering their contributions largely indistinguishable, as on the rudimentary electro of Tokyo Metro and the vocoder-assisted Pink Squirrel. It’s telling therefore that the closing Safe and Sound, on which Grant’s affecting baritone is unadorned by studio trickery, stands head and shoulders above the rest. Other highlights include the lurching funk of Modern Parenting and the icy Kraftwerkisms of Fall.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/18/creep-show-mr-dynamite-album-review-phil-mongredien">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicJohn GrantMusicSun, 18 Mar 2018 07:00:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/18/creep-show-mr-dynamite-album-review-phil-mongredienPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhil Mongredien2018-03-18T07:00:02ZEssaie Pas: New Path review – techno dystopias with witty flashes of funkhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/16/essaie-pas-new-path-review-techno-dystopias-with-witty-flashes-of-funk
<p>(DFA)</p><p>From Run the Jewels to Gary Numan, musicians technophobically fretting over the future of humanity have long used Philip K Dick as a touchstone – and that’s not counting the endless riffs on Vangelis’s synthscapes from the Dick-derived Blade Runner. <a href="https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/essaiepas">Essaie Pas</a>, married producers Marie Davidson and Pierre Guerineau, have used Dick’s druggily dsytopian novel A Scanner Darkly as inspiration for their fifth album, and tap into his dread much better than most. Their aesthetic is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/22/new-band-of-the-week-essaie-pas-no-87">mostly cyberpunk coldwave</a>, with techno kick drums pounding uncaringly in 4/4 motion; on Futur Parlé, they are cut through by neon scythes of metallic sound, before being joined by a three-note Chicago house bassline and Davidson’s signature monotone vocals (also brilliant on solo releases and her collaborations with Not Waving and Solitary Dancer). Les Agents des Stups switches up to relentless electro, before Substance M dives back to deep, stern techno. These expansive dancefloor moments are strong, but you long for a couple more of their left turns. Complet Brouillé is apparently inspired by dissociative drug experiences, though this particular K -hole is brightly decorated: another addictive Chicago bassline is placed against a stuttering beat to create infectious, witty funk. The chilling title track meanwhile features a robotic voice spewing shards of A Scanner Darkly dialogue into a void of sustained synth chords, a little like the dying protagonist Hal 9000 in another sci-fi classic, 2001A Space Odyssey. Essaie Pas have gone beyond cliche and fandom to make something that truly speaks to the dynamic thought and droll humour at the heart of Dick’s writing.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/16/essaie-pas-new-path-review-techno-dystopias-with-witty-flashes-of-funk">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicMusicCultureFri, 16 Mar 2018 10:30:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/mar/16/essaie-pas-new-path-review-techno-dystopias-with-witty-flashes-of-funkPhotograph: Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Record Company HandoutBen Beaumont-Thomas2018-03-16T10:30:02ZEverything Is Recorded: Everything Is Recorded By Richard Russell review – mogul music with a stellar casthttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/everything-is-recorded-review-mogul-music-with-a-stellar-cast-richard-russell-xl
<p>As head of XL, Richard Russell shaped UK music for three decades. His own debut release finds its voice in many singers</p><p>Imagine, for a moment, being the man who signed Adele. You run a label – XL – home to mavericks as diverse as Dizzee Rascal, Radiohead and Arca, and you produce records by your heroes – Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Womack – in what one might laughably call your spare time. By many people’s definitions, you’d be about as fulfilled, three-dimensional and jammy a human as there is. In 2015, your net worth was guessed at £75m, but your impact on British music is harder to calculate.</p><p>Then imagine being paralysed. One minute, you’re putting out <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/jan/24/scott-heron-new-here">Gil Scott-Heron’s final album</a>. And then – insert an obscure sound effect here, the kind that you collect – you’re laid low by <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/guillain-barre-syndrome/">Guillain-Barré syndrome</a>, an autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system. It’s 2013, you’re in hospital, and you can just about twiddle your fingers. Geoff Barrow, on behalf of Portishead, sends you a dinky synth – a <a href="https://www.critterandguitari.com/products/pocket-piano">pocket piano by Critter &amp; Guitari</a> to be precise – to retrain your synapses and stop you going mad. You can’t help but read Russell’s paralysis as one of those defining moments that would map the road ahead, if he could ever get his motor skills back.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/16/everything-is-recorded-review-hackney-arts-centre-london">Everything Is Recorded review – Richard Russell's XL supergroup shines</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/everything-is-recorded-review-mogul-music-with-a-stellar-cast-richard-russell-xl">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicPeter GabrielSamphaHip-hopDamon AlbarnPop and rockMusicCultureSun, 18 Feb 2018 09:00:40 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/everything-is-recorded-review-mogul-music-with-a-stellar-cast-richard-russell-xlPhotograph: Ed MorrisPhotograph: Ed MorrisKitty Empire2018-02-18T09:00:40ZFischerspooner: Sir review – not worth the nine-year waithttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/fischerspooner-sir-music-review-damien-morris
<p>(Ultra)</p><p><em> </em>Fischerspooner were key to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2007/jul/11/electroclashisnoflashinth">electroclash movement</a> that briefly twinned Europe’s gay capitals and New York almost 20 years ago. <a href="https://fischerspooner.com/">The American duo</a> have finally resurfaced with their first album in nine years, produced by REM’s Michael Stipe. In an unfortunate choice of phrase for British readers, <em>W</em> magazine described frontman Casey Spooner’s voyage of discovery after ending a long relationship as “bumming around Europe”. Sadly, the album doesn’t sound half as much fun as the journey. </p><p>Yes, Stipe’s work is often impressively feral, pitting harsh junkyard-dog synths against mountains of reverb. Yet the songs are largely weak, paralysed by unresolved tension. They lack the explosive catharsis that made Fischerspooner’s very first single Emerge an underground classic, or the radio-friendly arrangements of their best album <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2005/apr/08/popandrock.shopping1"><em>Odyssey</em></a><em>.</em> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/fischerspooner-sir-music-review-damien-morris">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicMusicCultureSun, 18 Feb 2018 07:00:37 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/feb/18/fischerspooner-sir-music-review-damien-morrisPhotograph: Jesus UgaldePhotograph: Jesus UgaldeDamien Morris2018-02-18T07:00:37ZNils Frahm: All Melody review – the magnificent and the misjudgedhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/28/nils-frahm-all-melody-review
(Erased Tapes)<p>It all begins unexpectedly – with a wordless chorale “ooh”-ing prettily. For his seventh studio album, German post-classical composer <a href="http://www.nilsfrahm.com/" title="">Nils Frahm</a> has expanded his previous core solo piano brief – a brief that was, admittedly, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aln6DztAsMQ" title="">always highly individual</a>.</p><p>Here are novelties: trumpets and modular synths, birdsong and beatboxes, all recorded in his new base, a refurbished east German palace of mid-20th century tech, the <a href="http://www.funkhaus-berlin.net/" title="">Funkhaus Berlin</a>. As ever, Frahm draws on his classical chops, accentuating the physicality of interacting with members of the piano family. The lush thwop of fingers on keys on hammers on strings on the nebulously jazzy My Friend the Forest or Forever Changeless is enough to give anyone an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response" title="">ASMR</a> thrill. By contrast, Sunson emphasises Frahm’s porous borders, fading organ music into minimal dub techno percussion.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/28/nils-frahm-all-melody-review">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicClassical musicMusicCultureSun, 28 Jan 2018 08:00:13 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/28/nils-frahm-all-melody-reviewPhotograph: Alexander SchneiderPhotograph: Alexander SchneiderKitty Empire2018-01-28T08:00:13ZPorches: The House review – jaded, romantic, intricate synthpophttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/21/porches-the-house-review-jaded-romantic-intricate-synthpop-aaron-maine
(Domino)<p><a href="http://porchesmusic.com/">Porches</a> started out making bedroom-rock in 2010, but frontman Aaron Maine has since steered his project into sheeny synth territory. Their third album, <em>The House</em>, retains the polished introspection and cleansing water imagery of previous record <em>Pool</em>, but goes deeper into Maine’s exploration of tender emotions. This is while getting more stripped back and minimalist than ever, with an aimless, delicate immersiveness.</p><p>There’s a vulnerable lightness that pervades the record, in spite of fleeting moments of jarring dissonance and numerous spiky dance tracks. Simple lyrics such as “I have no idea who I see in the mirror” (on By My Side) sound isolated in the mix, displaying a rawness perhaps explained by Maine writing lyrics from his journal entries, and recording most songs the day they were conceived. The result is an immediacy that revels in its shortcomings and errors.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/21/porches-the-house-review-jaded-romantic-intricate-synthpop-aaron-maine">Continue reading...</a>Pop and rockElectronic musicMusicSun, 21 Jan 2018 08:00:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/21/porches-the-house-review-jaded-romantic-intricate-synthpop-aaron-mainePhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutTara Joshi2018-01-21T08:00:15ZBrona McVittie: We Are the Wildlife review – beautifully embroidered folkhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/04/brona-mcvittie-we-are-the-wildlife-review-company-of-corkbots
<p><strong>(Company of Corkbots)</strong></p><p>Electronic music, used judiciously, can serve the folk song well, particularly when it’s teasing out subtler textures in the tradition, noticing the smaller stitches in its seams. This is certainly true of the work of Brona McVittie, an Irish singer and harpist who cites Tunng and French experimental artist Colleen among her inspirations. </p><p>She has recently returned to her native County Down after years living in London, and this album features her own promising originals alongside Irish folk songs that she embroiders beautifully. The Flower of Magherally’s harmonising flutes recall Virginia Astley’s pure pastoral instrumentals, while The Jug of Punch feeds an AL Lloyd drinking song through an ambient drama that summons up the spirits of both Talk Talk and the Unthanks (amazingly, this works). Every note of sweetness to McVittie’s voice has a bite behind it too, showing you the stuff under the skin. A stimulating debut.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/04/brona-mcvittie-we-are-the-wildlife-review-company-of-corkbots">Continue reading...</a>Folk musicMusicCultureElectronic musicThu, 04 Jan 2018 18:30:02 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/04/brona-mcvittie-we-are-the-wildlife-review-company-of-corkbotsPhotograph: Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Record Company HandoutJude Rogers2018-01-04T18:30:02ZMyra Davies: Sirens review – witty spoken-word skewering of violence, patriarchy and modern musichttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/myra-davies-sirens-review-spoken-word
<p><strong>(Moabit)</strong></p><p>Backed by smart techno-pop production by <a href="http://www.electronicbeats.net/gudrun-gut-beate-bartel-on-mania-d-berlin-experiment-vol-5/">Beate Bartel</a> and <a href="http://www.gudrungut.com/">Gudrun Gut</a>, Canadian spoken-word artist Myra Davies delivers a supremely droll series of observations. Some are close portraits with the vibrancy of a Manet or Degas – on Golddress, she frets about a girl on the cusp of womanhood (“I’m aching to take her picture / it’s nothing compared with what the world will do”), while Inshallah is a funny meet-cute at Istanbul airport. Elsewhere there is a brilliantly pithy three-part retelling of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung (“Girl and a guy on a dopamine high …”) and a cool evisceration of John Cage and his acolytes, highlighting their snobbery while lampooning their methods (“If something is boring for two minutes, try it for four / if still boring, then eight”). As she looks at our sexist, violent culture from her panopticon, Davies is omnipotent, and drily jaded. But crucially – as on Noutiné, a stark lament about a father walking free from the killing of his daughter – not aloof.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/myra-davies-sirens-review-spoken-word">Continue reading...</a>MusicElectronic musicCultureThu, 21 Dec 2017 14:00:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/myra-davies-sirens-review-spoken-wordPhotograph: Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Record Company HandoutBen Beaumont-Thomas2017-12-21T14:00:12ZPowerdance: The Lost Art of Getting Down review – love is the messagehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/powerdance-the-lost-art-of-getting-down-review
<p>The collective celebrate disco and post-punk from an age before tedious dancefloor Instagrams – but their bass-heavy toughness means they never become retro</p><p>In spring this year, dance music collective Powerdance released their third single, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHrBXKtc0Sc">A Safe and Happy Place</a>. It came accompanied by a video shot at the Bethnal Green strip club that hosts <a href="http://www.savagedisco.com/home3/">Savage</a>, an LGBT+ club night “combining disco music with an army of pole-dancing drag queens” at which <a href="https://twitter.com/lukesolomon?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Luke Solomon</a> – the core of Powerdance, alongside Chicago-born, German-based producer Nick Maurer – is among the resident DJs. The video features the club’s regulars turning themselves into androgynous creatures of the night, a riot of stiletto heels, leather, sequins, thongs, gold teeth grills and, perhaps more unexpectedly, Jacobean ruffs. The images fit perfectly with the track. Its soft, understated sound, occupying an area somewhere between disco and early Chicago house, seems to capture a sense of anticipation about the coming night; its lyrics hymn clubs as a place of transformation and abandon, where the outside world is barred: “Don’t be afraid to let it go … unless it’s love nobody cares … disco has made this place for us.” </p><p>It’s a theme that’s been taken up in countless tracks aimed at dancefloors over the last 50 years, but, as with the music it’s set to, A Safe and Happy Place presents it with what you might term a modern twist. The ideal dancefloor, suggest the lyrics, is a place where “nobody stares”, a line that seems to gently suggest that that you can’t really escape into unselfconscious abandon if there’s someone nearby with their phone out, snapping away and posting the results on social media, searching for likes; that it’s hard to shut out the outside world if people insist on bringing the outside world with them in their pockets.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/is-algorave-the-future-of-dance-music-sheffield-algomech-festival">Run the code: is algorave the future of dance music?</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/powerdance-the-lost-art-of-getting-down-review">Continue reading...</a>MusicDance musicElectronic musicCultureThu, 21 Dec 2017 14:00:12 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/21/powerdance-the-lost-art-of-getting-down-reviewPhotograph: Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Record Company HandoutAlexis Petridis2017-12-21T14:00:12ZTom Rogerson With Brian Eno: Finding Shore review – improvisation in the right keyhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/10/tom-rogerson-with-brian-eno-finding-shore-review
(Dead Oceans)<p><a href="http://threetrappedtigers.believeband.com/">Three Trapped Tigers</a> frontman Tom Rogerson plays piano and submits himself to Eno’s improvisational techniques on his debut solo album. In a very Enoesque way, a chance meeting outside a toilet led to the producer training infrared beams on the pianist’s keys and improvising around signals created when the beams were broken. The results are easy enough to digest, even if the process isn’t, with just enough repetition and structure to prevent attention drift. Most of the pieces forgo any sort of rhythm, although the baleful ambience of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGHlez90VZ8">March Away</a>’s percussion is so good that it’s a shame the pair didn’t pursue it.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/10/tom-rogerson-with-brian-eno-finding-shore-review">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicBrian EnoMusicCultureSun, 10 Dec 2017 08:00:30 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/10/tom-rogerson-with-brian-eno-finding-shore-reviewPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutDamien Morris2017-12-10T08:00:30ZNabihah Iqbal: Weighing of the Heart review – nostalgic, sweet pop and pristine beatshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/nabihah-iqbal-weighing-of-the-heart-review-nostalgic-sweet-pop-and-pristine-beats
<p><strong>(Ninja Tune)</strong></p><p>For the last few years, <a href="https://ninjatune.net/artist/nabihah-iqbal">Nabihah Iqbal</a> has been confecting bright and airy electronica as producer <a href="http://www.thefader.com/2017/06/29/deadboy-throwing-shade-westway">Throwing Shade</a>. For her debut album, she bursts out from between the synths with a warm and fuzzy vocal-led collection of tracks that nod to both New Order-ish post-punk and the intimate dream pop of the early 90s. The record also recalls fellow Londoners Real Lies, whose layering of street-lamp lit synths and gutter/stars portraits of the city echo in tracks like Zone 1 to 6000. The latter is just one of the highlights of an album that weaves sweet pop melodies and strange, scuttling beats together into something that feels both nostalgic and recklessly new. It’s all done with a precision and neatness that betrays Iqbal’s dance music roots, with each moment providing an aesthetic delight, from the medley of drumbeats that opens Eternal Passion to the liquid gold guitars that frequently surface.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/nabihah-iqbal-weighing-of-the-heart-review-nostalgic-sweet-pop-and-pristine-beats">Continue reading...</a>Pop and rockMusicElectronic musicCultureThu, 30 Nov 2017 22:30:25 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/nabihah-iqbal-weighing-of-the-heart-review-nostalgic-sweet-pop-and-pristine-beatsPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutRachel Aroesti2017-11-30T22:30:25ZPauset: Canons CD review – cool precision and dense virtuosityhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/pauset-canons-cd-review-nicolas-hodges-brice-wergo
<p><strong>Nicolas Hodges</strong><br>(Wergo, two CDs)</p><p>Canons have been a feature of western music since at least the 13th century, and it seems that composers are still fascinated by their possibilities. <a href="https://www.henry-lemoine.com/en/compositeurs/fiche/brice-pauset">Brice Pauset</a>, the French-born, German-resident former pupil of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/mar/18/gerard-grisey-contemporary-music-guide">Gérard Grisey</a> has taken that fascination further than most; as well as these cycles of canons for solo piano, he has composed equivalent cycles for chamber ensemble and chamber orchestra.</p><p>The 18 pieces in these four collections were composed between 1989, when Pauset was studying at the Paris Conservatoire, and 2010. They range from spare, rather Webern-like contrapuntal pieces lasting barely a minute, to much denser, virtuosic showpieces, in which the canonical techniques generating them are hard, if not impossible to discern. It’s not easy music to get on terms with. The later sets were composed for <a href="http://www.nicolashodges.com/">Nicolas Hodges</a>, who plays them with his typical combination of cool precision and expressive freedom. He’s also the pianist in the single work on the second disc, Perspectivae Sintagma I, for piano and live electronics, also based on canons.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/pauset-canons-cd-review-nicolas-hodges-brice-wergo">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicElectronic musicThu, 30 Nov 2017 16:00:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/30/pauset-canons-cd-review-nicolas-hodges-brice-wergoPhotograph: Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Record Company HandoutAndrew Clements2017-11-30T16:00:17ZBjörk: Utopia review – a lush, airy fresh starthttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/26/bjork-utopia-review
<p>(One Little Indian)<br>Björk exudes a lust for life again on her self-styled ‘Tinder album’, a hope-filled set powered by flutes and birdsong</p><p>To talk of Björk’s <em>Utopia</em> as a rebirth is no stretch. On the cover of her <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/bjork-utopia-interview-people-miss-the-jokes" title="">ninth solo album</a> she emerges as though from an iridescent caul. Her forehead&nbsp;has been modified into a uterine shape; pearls fall from fallopian flowers.</p><p>It wouldn’t be a stretch either to note that after the austere, extreme <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/25/bjork-vulnicura-review-heavy-yet-compelling" title=""><em>Vulnicura</em> </a>– the 2015 album that marked the pain and fury of Björk’s separation from the father of her daughter – <em>Utopia</em> harkens back to the nature love of older albums such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/oct/09/bjork-biophilia-review" title=""><em>Biophilia</em></a> and <em>Vespertine</em>, and the default lust for life Björk has exhibited throughout her long career.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/bjork-utopia-interview-people-miss-the-jokes">Björk: ‘People miss the jokes. A lot of it is me taking the piss out of myself’</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/26/bjork-utopia-review">Continue reading...</a>BjörkElectronic musicMusicCultureSun, 26 Nov 2017 08:59:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/26/bjork-utopia-reviewPhotograph: Santiago FelipePhotograph: Santiago FelipeKitty Empire2017-11-26T08:59:05ZXenoula: Xenoula review – an intricate, experimental debuthttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/26/xenoula-album-review-debut-tororoi-la-priest
<p>(Weird World)</p><p>Occasionally this debut album from <a href="http://xenou.la/">Xenoula</a> (real name Romy Xeno) feels like relatively run-of-the-mill indietronica – tracks like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsLbbBWvI2E">Luna Man</a>, for example, are somewhat forgettable. But as the album opens out, it’s clear the South Africa-born, Wales-based artist, along with producer <a href="https://www.facebook.com/trulylapriest/">LA Priest</a>, offers something more intricate and strange. Dreamy <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwrLLMjMfRU">Caramello</a> boasts breathy, sweet vocals ghosting over rich but fragmented electronic textures, pulled together over a warm, organic, psych-infused groove, while standout Tororoi finds lithe percussion dancing and weaving around her voice. At its best this is earthy, experimental pop, but the unusual sounds that pique the interest come too inconsistently.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/26/xenoula-album-review-debut-tororoi-la-priest">Continue reading...</a>IndieElectronic musicPop and rockMusicCultureSun, 26 Nov 2017 08:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/26/xenoula-album-review-debut-tororoi-la-priestPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutTara Joshi2017-11-26T08:00:04ZKim Myhr: You | Me Myhr CD review – blissed-out twangs for big-sky vistashttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/kim-myhr-you-me-cd-review-hubro
<p><strong>Myhr</strong><br>(Hubro)</p><p>Here’s an album that feels beautifully out of season. Norwegian composer/experimental guitarist Kim Myhr is a master of slow-morphing rhythms and sun-dappled textures that seem to glow from the inside. His electronics are mellow and inviting; his 12-string acoustic guitar has a loose, blissed-out twang. With <a draggable="true" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/you-i-me/1276810591">just two long tracks</a> (A and B on the vinyl release) that loop and shimmy around a single simple hook, You | Me has a 60s psych-folk vibe and something of the roving thrum of early Steve Reich or <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/tomserviceblog/2013/jan/28/terry-riley-contemporary-music-guide">Terry Riley’s In C</a>, or indeed <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/sep/14/julius-eastman-american-composer-pianist-femenine">Julius Eastman</a>’s joyous <a draggable="true" href="http://frozenreeds.com/?p=300">Femenine</a>. Three drummers – Ingar Zach, Hans Hulbækmo and <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/feb/20/the-necks-tony-buck-on-improvising-lets-not-force-anything-just-chill">The Necks’ Tony Buck</a> – add spangling commentary and tranquil momentum and occasionally drift into sombre eddies. It’s an album to bolster the spirits and ground the nerves: travelling music for big-sky vistas.<br tabindex="-1"></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/kim-myhr-you-me-cd-review-hubro">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicExperimental musicElectronic musicThu, 23 Nov 2017 15:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/kim-myhr-you-me-cd-review-hubroPhotograph: Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Record Company HandoutKate Molleson2017-11-23T15:00:04ZBjörk: Utopia review – romance, angst and troublingly thin tuneshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/bjork-utopia-review-tinder-album-singer-dating-app
<p>The musician’s self-professed ‘Tinder album’ spins from ecstasy to frustration by focusing more on soundscapes than melody</p><p>At this stage in her career, no one expects <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/bjork-utopia-interview-people-miss-the-jokes">Björk</a>’s latest record to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/22/bjork-vulnicura-review-breakup-album">sound much like her last one</a>. And yet it’s hard to avoid heaving a thankful sigh when Arisen My Senses, the opening track of her ninth studio album, Utopia, crashes into life: birdsong giving way to bright splashes of electronics, beatific-sounding harp chords and cascading beats not unlike the oft-sampled rhythm track of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/13/schoolly-d-gangsta-rap-record">Schoolly D</a>’s old rap classic PSK, What Does It Mean? It sounds positively ecstatic, which comes as a relief. Utopia’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/22/bjork-vulnicura-review-breakup-album">predecessor, 2015’s Vulnicura</a>, was a remarkable record, a latterday entry into the canon of legendary break-up albums. It attained its place alongside Marvin Gaye’s Here, My Dear and Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks by setting its fathomless misery to atonal string arrangements and abstract electronics that, during its central track, kept vanishing into a single flatlining beep. It was raw, brave, challenging, unique and all the other adjectives heaped on it in reviews, but with the best will in the world, any album so harrowing that the appearance of gloom-laden vocalist <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/apr/09/trans-singer-anohni-new-album-hopelessness">Anohni</a> constitutes a moment of light relief is going to be one that defies you to listen to it repeatedly.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/22/bjork-vulnicura-review-breakup-album">Björk: Vulnicura review – a sucker punch of a breakup album </a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/bjork-utopia-review-tinder-album-singer-dating-app">Continue reading...</a>BjörkPop and rockCultureMusicIndieElectronic musicThu, 23 Nov 2017 12:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/bjork-utopia-review-tinder-album-singer-dating-appPhotograph: Santiago FelipePhotograph: Santiago FelipeAlexis Petridis2017-11-23T12:00:01ZPnau: Changa review – the perfect winter tonichttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/pnau-changa-review-the-perfect-winter-tonic
<p>(etcetc)</p><p>Australian trio <a href="http://pnau.tv/">Pnau</a>, led by Nick Littlemore, one half of ludicrous space-pop outfit <a href="http://empireofthesun.com/">Empire of the Sun</a>, clearly have no concept of timing. <em>Changa</em>, their fifth album, is a DayGlo riot of fizzing pop, squelchy disco and festival-ready anthems that practically reeks of sun cream and has for some reason been released in November. Still, the majority of the songs try their hardest to warm the soul, particularly last year’s outrageously infectious single <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2pp_ZAk6Uw&amp;has_verified=1">Chameleon</a>, the swirling psych-pop of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KoHW5I8D0Q">Into the Sky</a> and Please Forgive Me, which marries sparkly falsetto with a rave piano riff. It’s big, it’s not always clever, but <em>Changa</em> might actually be the perfect winter tonic.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/pnau-changa-review-the-perfect-winter-tonic">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicMusicCultureSun, 12 Nov 2017 08:00:49 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/12/pnau-changa-review-the-perfect-winter-tonicPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutMichael Cragg2017-11-12T08:00:49ZCall Super: Arpo review – outstanding after-hours technohttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/09/call-super-arpo-review-outstanding-after-hours-techno
<p><strong>(Houndstooth)</strong></p><p>Behind the decks, Joe Seaton, AKA <a href="https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/callsuper">Call Super</a>, mixes up a cosmopolitan blend of techno and house, but his own productions are pitched at those dissonant, poignant moments after the night has ended, when you’re wandering home past people off to <a href="http://www.parkrun.org.uk/">Parkrun</a> and Sainsbury’s. There are pulses, but they shift on their foundations; No Wonder We Go Under has a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/04/its-all-about-feeling-chicago-dance-great-larry-heard-takes-house-to-the-heavens">Larry Heard</a>-style house bassline, but the lack of a heavy onbeat sends it drifting into the beyond. Frequent appearances of a quavering clarinet, hardly rave culture’s go-to instrument, further enhance the very particular beauty of his vision, which, a little like <a href="https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/laurelhalo">Laurel Halo</a> or his recent collaborator <a href="https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/beatricedillon">Beatrice Dillon</a>, comes at dub techno with a jazz arranger’s mindset. And while “chillout” music is often abominably unthreatening, Seaton’s has a tinge of anxiety, particularly on standout Out to Rust, where held clarinet notes clamour and fret through the funk.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/09/call-super-arpo-review-outstanding-after-hours-techno">Continue reading...</a>Dance musicMusicCultureElectronic musicThu, 09 Nov 2017 22:00:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/09/call-super-arpo-review-outstanding-after-hours-technoPhotograph: George NebieridzePhotograph: George NebieridzeBen Beaumont-Thomas2017-11-09T22:00:01ZJames Holden and the Animal Spirits: The Animal Spirits review – a dizzying fusionhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/05/james-holden-and-animal-spirits-review
(Border Community)<p>Inspired by Don Cherry and Pharoah Sanders’s jazz-world fusion experiments with Moroccan gnawa music, former trance DJ <a href="http://www.jamesholden.org/">Holden</a> attempted his own crossover with Floating Points and former Sanders collaborator Mahmoud Guinia on the 2015 12-inch Marhaba. Forging those connections left him longing to play with a band of fellow explorers: hence new crew the Animal Spirits. The gnawa influence is strong in the dizzying build of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ8KNMM3pqc">Pass Through the Fire</a>, but it’s just one element in a giddy maelstrom of cosmic prog, krautrock, techno and psych-folk. Occasionally, as on, er, Thunder Moon Gathering, things get a little pastichey, but it’s worth it for sublime moments like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQsHZ0eyPl8">title track</a>, where lines between worlds and times blur.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/05/james-holden-and-animal-spirits-review">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicMusicCultureSun, 05 Nov 2017 08:00:13 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/05/james-holden-and-animal-spirits-reviewPhotograph: Laura LewisPhotograph: Laura LewisEmily Mackay2017-11-05T08:00:13ZRabit: Les Fleurs Du Mal review – dancefloor deconstructed too farhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/02/rabit-les-fleurs-du-mal-review-dancefloor-deconstructed-too-far
<p><strong>(Halcyon Veil)</strong></p><p>In underground clubbing there has been a recent vogue for “deconstructed” tracks; agglomerations of barely rhythmic noise that can prove brutally funky. Rabit, a producer who previously created icy grime-like tracks and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/04/apocalyptic-dance-music">blasts of apocalyptic techno</a>, has now deconstructed to the point of collapse, and subsequent tedium. With its whirrs of brooding machinery and foreboding, far-off storms, Les Fleurs Du Mal is more <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/13/visionist-and-rabit-the-producers-making-grime-without-the-mcs-or-even-the-beats">sound design than music</a>, and while second-to-second it is impressively three-dimensional, its sheer abstraction means that genuine terror, sorrow or poignancy never build up. Only the prettily flickering Bleached World and psychosexual drama of Dogsblood Redemption prove diverting. The absolutely devastated humanity is probably the point – is this a dystopia to walk back from? – and hardcore experimentalists may find it immersive, but for everyone else it’s an inadvertent reminder of how rhythm can invest sound with meaning.</p><p><br></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/02/rabit-les-fleurs-du-mal-review-dancefloor-deconstructed-too-far">Continue reading...</a>Electronic musicMusicCultureDance musicThu, 02 Nov 2017 22:15:06 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/02/rabit-les-fleurs-du-mal-review-dancefloor-deconstructed-too-farPhotograph: Lane Stewart/Courtesy of the artistPhotograph: Lane Stewart/Courtesy of the artistBen Beaumont-Thomas2017-11-02T22:15:06Z